Florida stone crab
Encyclopedia
The Florida stone crab, Menippe mercenaria, is a crab
found in the western North Atlantic
, from Connecticut
to Belize
, including Texas
, the Gulf of Mexico
, Cuba
and the Bahamas that is widely caught for food.
is 5 to 6.5 in (12.7 to 16.5 ) long and about 5 in (12.7 cm) wide in larger specimens. They are brownish red with gray spots and a tan underside, and have large and unequally-sized chelae (claws) with black tips. In addition to the usual sexual dimorphism
exhibited by crabs, the female
Florida stone crabs have a larger carapace than males of a similar age, and males generally have larger chelae than females.
Florida stone crabs prefer to feed on oyster
s and other small mollusks, polychaete worms, and other crustacean
s. They will also occasionally eat seagrass
and carrion
. Predators that feed on stone crabs include horse conch, grouper
, sea turtle
s, cobia
, octopus
es, and human
s.
Sexual maturity
is reached at one year. Their long spawning season lasts all spring and summer, during which time females produce 500,000 to 1 million eggs. The larvae
go through six stages in about 36 days before emerging as juvenile crabs. Their lifespan is seven to eight years.
The male Florida stone crab must wait for the female to molt
her exoskeleton
before they can mate. After mating, the male will stay to help protect the female for several hours to several days. The female will spawn four to six times each season.
The Florida stone crab loses its limbs
easily to escape from predators or tight spaces, but their limbs will grow back. When a claw is broken such that the diaphragm at the body/claw joint is left intact, the wound will quickly heal itself and very little blood
is lost. If, however, the claw is broken in the wrong place, more blood is lost and the crab's chances of survival are much lower. It only takes about one year for the claw to grow back to its normal size. Each time the crab molts, the new claw grows larger.
The larger of the two claws is called the "crusher claw". The smaller claw is called the "pincer claw". If the larger crusher claw is on the right side of the crab's body, the crab is "right-handed". If the crusher claw is on the left side of the crab's body, it is "left-handed". Since crabs' eyes are on stalks, they can see 360°. A large crab claw can weigh up to half a pound
.
The crab only molts at night or in night-like conditions due to the crab being extremely vulnerable to predators without the protection of its shell. If the crab is becoming too large for its shell and the sun is up, the crab releases a hormone
from a gland located on one of their eye stalks called the x-organ. This hormone prevents the crab from molting from its shell until it finds a safe place to molt or it has become dark enough outside to molt in safety.
The Florida stone crab is usually fished near jetties, oyster reefs or other rocky areas, just as for blue crabs. The bodies of these crabs are relatively small and so are rarely eaten, but the claws (chelae), which are large and strong enough to break an oyster's shell, are considered a delicacy
. Harvesting is accomplished by removing one or both claws from the live animal and returning it to the ocean where it can regrow the lost limb(s). To be kept, claws must be 2.75 inches (7 cm) long, measured from the tips of the immovable finger to the first joint. However, mortality rates are 47% for doubly-amputated crabs and 28% for single amputees. Florida stone crabs are legal for harvest from October 15 until May 15.
To prevent the meat from sticking to the shells, stone crab claws are cooked immediately before being chilled.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium.org has given the Florida Stone Crab fishery its highest rating of "Best Choice" for maintaining high fishing standards and working hard to keep the Stone Crab a viable fishery. Best Choice is given only to fisheries they recommend for consumption.
Crab
True crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" , or where the reduced abdomen is entirely hidden under the thorax...
found in the western North Atlantic
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
, from Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
to Belize
Belize
Belize is a constitutional monarchy and the northernmost country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. Even though Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official...
, including Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
, Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
and the Bahamas that is widely caught for food.
Description
The stone crab's carapaceCarapace
A carapace is a dorsal section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods such as crustaceans and arachnids, as well as vertebrates such as turtles and tortoises. In turtles and tortoises, the underside is called the plastron.-Crustaceans:In crustaceans, the...
is 5 to 6.5 in (12.7 to 16.5 ) long and about 5 in (12.7 cm) wide in larger specimens. They are brownish red with gray spots and a tan underside, and have large and unequally-sized chelae (claws) with black tips. In addition to the usual sexual dimorphism
Sexual dimorphism
Sexual dimorphism is a phenotypic difference between males and females of the same species. Examples of such differences include differences in morphology, ornamentation, and behavior.-Examples:-Ornamentation / coloration:...
exhibited by crabs, the female
Female
Female is the sex of an organism, or a part of an organism, which produces non-mobile ova .- Defining characteristics :The ova are defined as the larger gametes in a heterogamous reproduction system, while the smaller, usually motile gamete, the spermatozoon, is produced by the male...
Florida stone crabs have a larger carapace than males of a similar age, and males generally have larger chelae than females.
Ecology
Florida stone crabs prefer the bottoms of bays, grass flats, oyster reefs, and rock jetties where they can burrow or find refuge from predators. Juveniles do not usually dig burrows, but instead hide among rocks or in seagrass beds. It is dark brownish-red with gray interspersed. The claws are hinged, very dark, and banded with red and yellow. Adult Florida stone crabs make burrows in mud or sand below the low tide line, lying in wait for prey.Florida stone crabs prefer to feed on oyster
Oyster
The word oyster is used as a common name for a number of distinct groups of bivalve molluscs which live in marine or brackish habitats. The valves are highly calcified....
s and other small mollusks, polychaete worms, and other crustacean
Crustacean
Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...
s. They will also occasionally eat seagrass
Seagrass
Seagrasses are flowering plants from one of four plant families , all in the order Alismatales , which grow in marine, fully saline environments.-Ecology:...
and carrion
Carrion
Carrion refers to the carcass of a dead animal. Carrion is an important food source for large carnivores and omnivores in most ecosystems. Examples of carrion-eaters include vultures, hawks, eagles, hyenas, Virginia Opossum, Tasmanian Devils, coyotes, Komodo dragons, and burying beetles...
. Predators that feed on stone crabs include horse conch, grouper
Grouper
Groupers are fish of any of a number of genera in the subfamily Epinephelinae of the family Serranidae, in the order Perciformes.Not all serranids are called groupers; the family also includes the sea basses. The common name grouper is usually given to fish in one of two large genera: Epinephelus...
, sea turtle
Sea turtle
Sea turtles are marine reptiles that inhabit all of the world's oceans except the Arctic.-Distribution:...
s, cobia
Cobia
Cobia —also known as black kingfish, black salmon, ling, lemonfish, crabeaters, aruan tasek, etc.—are perciform marine fish, the sole representative of their family, the Rachycentridae.-Description:...
, octopus
Octopus
The octopus is a cephalopod mollusc of the order Octopoda. Octopuses have two eyes and four pairs of arms, and like other cephalopods they are bilaterally symmetric. An octopus has a hard beak, with its mouth at the center point of the arms...
es, and human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
s.
Sexual maturity
Sexual maturity
Sexual maturity is the age or stage when an organism can reproduce. It is sometimes considered synonymous with adulthood, though the two are distinct...
is reached at one year. Their long spawning season lasts all spring and summer, during which time females produce 500,000 to 1 million eggs. The larvae
Larvae
In Roman mythology, lemures were shades or spirits of the restless or malignant dead, and are probably cognate with an extended sense of larvae as disturbing or frightening...
go through six stages in about 36 days before emerging as juvenile crabs. Their lifespan is seven to eight years.
The male Florida stone crab must wait for the female to molt
Ecdysis
Ecdysis is the moulting of the cuticula in many invertebrates. This process of moulting is the defining feature of the clade Ecdysozoa, comprising the arthropods, nematodes, velvet worms, horsehair worms, rotifers, tardigrades and Cephalorhyncha...
her exoskeleton
Exoskeleton
An exoskeleton is the external skeleton that supports and protects an animal's body, in contrast to the internal skeleton of, for example, a human. In popular usage, some of the larger kinds of exoskeletons are known as "shells". Examples of exoskeleton animals include insects such as grasshoppers...
before they can mate. After mating, the male will stay to help protect the female for several hours to several days. The female will spawn four to six times each season.
The Florida stone crab loses its limbs
Autotomy
Autotomy or self amputation is the act whereby an animal severs one or more of its own appendages, usually as a self-defense mechanism designed to elude a predator's grasp...
easily to escape from predators or tight spaces, but their limbs will grow back. When a claw is broken such that the diaphragm at the body/claw joint is left intact, the wound will quickly heal itself and very little blood
Blood
Blood is a specialized bodily fluid in animals that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells....
is lost. If, however, the claw is broken in the wrong place, more blood is lost and the crab's chances of survival are much lower. It only takes about one year for the claw to grow back to its normal size. Each time the crab molts, the new claw grows larger.
The larger of the two claws is called the "crusher claw". The smaller claw is called the "pincer claw". If the larger crusher claw is on the right side of the crab's body, the crab is "right-handed". If the crusher claw is on the left side of the crab's body, it is "left-handed". Since crabs' eyes are on stalks, they can see 360°. A large crab claw can weigh up to half a pound
Pound (mass)
The pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in the Imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement...
.
The crab only molts at night or in night-like conditions due to the crab being extremely vulnerable to predators without the protection of its shell. If the crab is becoming too large for its shell and the sun is up, the crab releases a hormone
Hormone
A hormone is a chemical released by a cell or a gland in one part of the body that sends out messages that affect cells in other parts of the organism. Only a small amount of hormone is required to alter cell metabolism. In essence, it is a chemical messenger that transports a signal from one...
from a gland located on one of their eye stalks called the x-organ. This hormone prevents the crab from molting from its shell until it finds a safe place to molt or it has become dark enough outside to molt in safety.
Fishery
Delicacy
A delicacy is a food item that is considered highly desirable in certain cultures. Often this is because of unusual flavors or characteristics or because it is rare....
. Harvesting is accomplished by removing one or both claws from the live animal and returning it to the ocean where it can regrow the lost limb(s). To be kept, claws must be 2.75 inches (7 cm) long, measured from the tips of the immovable finger to the first joint. However, mortality rates are 47% for doubly-amputated crabs and 28% for single amputees. Florida stone crabs are legal for harvest from October 15 until May 15.
To prevent the meat from sticking to the shells, stone crab claws are cooked immediately before being chilled.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium.org has given the Florida Stone Crab fishery its highest rating of "Best Choice" for maintaining high fishing standards and working hard to keep the Stone Crab a viable fishery. Best Choice is given only to fisheries they recommend for consumption.